There is an ongoing war against private transportation. This is being openly prosecuted on several fronts by special interest groups working at various purposes, but the place where the interests of these groups intersect is the banning of private ownership of vehicles for the average person. The foot soldiers of these groups are not aware that this is the ultimate end-goal of the strategies they embrace, but the forces of totalitarianism are expert at duping people using high-sounding motives to enact their plans.
Vision Zero is the most visible face of the safety front of this war. “Vision Zero is a strategy to eliminate all traffic fatalities and severe injuries, while increasing safe, healthy, equitable mobility for all.” Anyone who has a goal of zero risk is willing to trample your rights to get there; the COVID lockdowns in Shanghai provide an excellent example. Vision Zero explicitly reject individual responsibility in favor of what they call a “systems approach,” ie central planning and revocation of individual rights.
There are also countless local community groups who share some or all of the goals of Vision Zero, even if they are unaware of the larger organization. These are the people who eliminate parking spaces in favor of bike lanes and dedicated bus lanes. They also love the phrase “road diet” which means shutting down travel lanes of existing roads allegedly to prevent speeding; in reality this merely increases motorist anger and causes people to unsafely pass on urban streets and roads. When they use bullshit, dishonest phrases like “road diet,” instead of the more honest “lane closure,” you can be assured that they are up to no good.
The second major front of the war is the League of Conservation Voters, and allied groups with the shared goal of stopping or slowing alleged human-caused climate change. They want to completely phase out fossil fuels and mandate electric cars. Unfortunately, it turns out that current global lithium production can’t supply all the batteries those electric cars would need. And this doesn’t even address the problems with generating capacity, the electrical grid, and availability of charging stations.
These climate warrior groups have recently gone into full Alinsky overdrive due to the Russia-Ukraine war, attempting to lever that crisis to remake our economy and transportation system. LCV also opposes nuclear power so in effect they are a lobby for the wind and solar power industries.
The Obama administration’s “Cash for Clunkers” program is an object lesson in what happens when these people enact feel-good policies, while ignoring economics. Cash for clunkers was supposed to incentivize poor people to get rid of their older, fuel-inefficient vehicles, by buying those cars at above-market value. The stated goal was that the incentivized would replace those vehicles with more modern, fuel-efficient vehicles. The actual effect was to leave those poor people with no cars at all since the buyback created a surge in demand for newer used vehicles which the market was unable to fulfill.
Therefore, any attempt to buy back internal combustion vehicles to promote the purchase of electrical vehicles may, at very best, be viewed with suspicion. The predictable outcome, based on past progressive actions, is forcing another rung of poor people out of car ownership and into the ranks of those who must use car services (Uber, Lyft, etc), or rely on public transportation.
Collectivists always a push away from ownership, and towards “shared services,” and “systemic solutions.” Why, after all, does that suburban family need a personally-owned vehicle 24×7 when it is statistically never used 10 PM – 6 AM? Why should not that vehicle be leased and shared? Efficiency! System! Mutuality!
“Road diet.”
But the reality is that suburban families want their own vehicles, and want them there in their driveways and garages at the appointed hour. They don’t want to deal with a vehicle which has been used overnight by one or more unknown persons, and deal with possible crabs, incontinence, poor hygiene, food residue, perfume decisions, etc, of those people. People have different lifestyles and don’t respect what they don’t own. Therefore, the switch to shared vehicles will be smuggled in under the promise of electric vehicles for all, but when the supply of electric vehicles fails to keep up with demand they will be told that the shortage is only temporary, and necessary because of Gaia and Russia.
There is a third faction, fighting the war less openly – the national security state. Reducing the number of personally-owned vehicles serves the purpose of limiting and controlling movement. Passengers on public transportation are subject to illegal TSA searches. If you have to go through a security checkpoint, the national security state knows who you are and where you’re going. Useful information if you are concerned about people skeptical of government power who may seek to gather in person knowing that electronic communications are compromised and monitored.
Lastly, the national security state would also benefit from eliminating “civilian” access to gasoline. Fire is a weapon of last resort and is remarkably effective at overcoming body armor and, given enough time, can toast the occupants of an armored vehicle particularly if that vehicle is trapped in a blind alley by the rubble from a recently-collapsed wall.
It is pointless to speculate whether these various groups are somehow coordinating their actions, and whether there is a unified command structure. Even if there is, the foot soldiers in this war, the safety moms and Gaia cultists, are unaware of such and will use any excuse to denigrate their opponents as paranoiacs.
If the Democrats do well in national elections in 2022, expect Cash for Clunkers, Part Two – Electric Vehicle Boogaloo. Also, war on fossil fuels by any means available. If the Democrats suffer an electoral upset this fall, as seems likely, expect them to redouble local efforts to make cities even more hostile to cars.
North Dakota has a Vision Zero program. I roll my eyes at the commercials, but never considered its genesis.
They do have an interesting sober ride program. Call for a ride and the state covers $10 of it. It’s only available at certain times, and obviously the majority of NoDak doesn’t have Ubers, but it’s an interesting program nonetheless.
Also the BAC limit has been lowered so many times it’s now “may have eaten an over-ripe banana”.
And if MADD and their allies had there way it would go down to .06 or lower.
You know who else never considered its Genesis?
Ricardo Montalbán in Star Trek II?
Tonio appears to be wearing the glasses.
And he’s all out of bubblegum.
Supply chain issues.
Goddam Putin took my Hubba-bubba!
Great article.
Seriously. This is one of best.
In the USSR they required people to request permissions to do any travel so the KGB made sure to track them. Have no doubt that’s where we are heading, because our elite want a global credentialed aristocracy where they control the membership and have all the power and the perks, while they want us serfs living in pods, eating bugs, and most definitely not being able to move around on our own. Watch when they decide we also need an implanted tracking device because we keep fighting them on mobility.
Not to mention that battery technology is not anywhere close to good enough for the northern tier of Flyover Country. I know, they don’t give a shit, just sayin’.
If there’s one thing they all have in common, it’s that they cannot empathize with others and their economic needs. Like autistic children, they think they can, but they simply cannot imagine themselves in the situation of a farmer or a truck driver and how that might impact their decision making.
Hell, they can’t even imagine the complexity of how they get their own needs met. They think it just shows up massively when and where it’s required.
Electricity is from the outlet, water is from the faucet, food is from the delivery driver. Solving the world’s problems is so much easier when you think that way.
Even when food stops magically appearing at their WalMart, they’ll still not get it. It’s so infuriating.
You mean Whole Foods. The people you describe wouldn’t be caught dead in a Walmart.
Very good point. I stand corrected.
They wouldn’t be caught dead in any grocery store anymore. Delivery or curbside pickup only. Can’t be passing around the Covaids.
Almost none of those people can afford to shop at Whole Foods. But they try because this is how stupid they are. When you cannot even afford water to bathe, you should not be shopping at Whole Foods.
It’s not just that they don’t give a shit about Norther Flyover, it’s that they absolutely hate cars. The left is convinced that the automobile is a sign of the debil, as prophesized my Malthus. Just another sign of mans destruction of Gaia.
Or the southern tier, or the east coast. Pretty much batteries like 75 American degrees. Venture to far north or south of that number and you’re going to have problems.
Plus all the gaia-raping needed to get enough rare earth metals for the electric motors.
That happens halfway around the world in countries where the people don’t look like them, next to the Nike plant.
Obligatory on-topic music
MikeS hardest hit.
This is a really great point. The True Believers will never, can never, admit they are being led around by the nose. They are sure of their moral superiority. It fulfills them and gives them a sense of purpose.
How much will your EV be worth when you can get a replacement battery? Spark owners get to be the guinea pigs in that little experiment.
https://www.autoblog.com/2022/04/25/chevy-spark-ev-batteries-unavailable/
Can should be can’t.
Thanks to Brandon, Team Blue, the Commie Cough and general human stupidity my 3 year old EV is worth more now than when I bought new.
It sounds like the Spark is a truly bad automobile right from day one. Had initial battery problems, was only produced for three years. Production was so low (7400 total) that no aftermarket battery has been produced. Most EVs won’t have the same fate.
My son just totaled his Mazda. After 4 years and about 60k miles the insurance company is giving us what we originally paid for the car.
‘Splosives, as the thread was dying when you asked about the four horsemen of the great awokening,
Good article, Tonio. It scares me.
Sorry. But also thanks. It brought me no joy to write it.
I favor bus lanes even if I think “Vision Zero” is a crock and I would never support imposing them where they don’t make sense. Might be because I live on the slowest bus route in NYC. Most days Fifth Avenue Brooklyn is four lanes of parking with a middle lane you can try to squeeze through.
If you are going to do public transit, bus lanes area good way to go. Relatively cheap and flexible.
This is on top of the subway line that runs under Fourth Avenue. Yeah, it’s dense here. This neighborhood was built before cars.
Apropos music
Great article, Tonio.
I got your mid-engine, eurocar, eighties hair metal right here, bro.
Also, thanks.
Better music.
(Suck it, Hyperbole)
Nice! I grew up listening to my mom and dad’s album collection and this song was an early favorite of mine.
Your folks had good taste in music, MikeS, they probably had a Little Deuce Coupe shined up with some 409, too
Heck yes they did! There was even a Tijuana Taxi.
Speaking of Herb Alpert; young MikeS spent an inordinate amount of time looking at this album cover.
I knew before I looked, MikeS
?
Aw yeah.
LOL I LOVE that song.
I have a vivid memory of that playing while my German teacher was driving a tricycle around the gym floor in granny drag.
It occurs to me that high school was pretty weird.
Um, yeah.
I got no problem with Jan and Dean. Although Chuck Berry wrote better car songs that any of those crackers.
Why can’t you be true, Maybelline?
More apropos music.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=868DSi85odQ
I used to work in Berkeley, as people know it is a university town of about 100k. And it is the absolute worst place to drive in as the city council has done everything to make driving miserable. Weird traffic blockages, the busiest street, San Pablo, having bike lanes put in, no left turn signals, and so on. But all of the students have cars. And that is what makes the place money. Go north and everything works (sorta) go south to Oakland, and it works (sorta). That is because everyone ignores the bike lanes, they have left turn signals, etc.
What they have allowed their hatred to do is just make it not work for anyone, bikes or cars.
In addition to Berkeley driving, parking was tough to find. I had a secure spot in a fenced in area. Came out from work on Telegraph Ave late one evening,
my van was the only one left in the parking lot, next to it was a nice brief case. I casually picked up the brief case, put it inside. I knew that thing was full of Benjies from a drug sale gone bad. I was sort of shaking when I got back to the motel and opened it up.
A newspaper and several pairs of glasses. The next morning I took it back and gave it to the parking lot attendant who recognized it and thanked me. An hour or two later a well dressed guy came into the store, gave me a bottle of wine and was very happy to get to his brief case back. He was an optometrist a few doors away from where I was working.
1) you are lucky you qwre not killed, 2) I am glad the guy got his glasses back!
Berkeley is indeed the worst fucking place to drive in the Bay Area. Man, I have nothing but contempt for that damn place.
Oddly specific!
/eyes Tonio suspiciously
The first car will have X tax, the 2nd will X+ some number higher. There will be no third car. There will be lots of parking space at Dunkin’ Donuts ’cause only the enforcers will have cars. Curfews on cars. Jitneys will be transport of choice.
Street cars will return to Mpls after a 70 year hiatus. Power will shut off at 10 PM.
“We didn’t mean all this stuff, only to save Gaia and only for the inner city (poorer) people. I need my car to take Muffin to ballet class”
Very prescient, Tonio
I misplaced the article, but I recently saw a report that even residents of NYC are not buying EVs.
There is no good place to charge them reliably for most city dwellers in NYC.
Here in the NJ burbs as a second vehicle they make more sense.
Tonio, and the others who fear what’s coming from the “ban fossil fuels” crowd: Fear Not, the Libertarian Party is about to be taken over by “Smash the Fascist State” libertarians who have just been chomping at the bit to roll out their radical “take no prisoners” program that will convince the majority of American voters to establish a Real Libertarian country.
Winston, is that you?
I bought my first car at 16. I recycled aluminum cans in order to pay for it. That car meant freedom to me. As long as I had gas money( gas was $.86/gallon in 1987 ), I could visit my girlfriend, or go to the big city with friends to watch “Rocky Horror Picture Show”, or drink beer at a kegger on somebody’s farm.
Car=freedom to me.
As it does for the vast majority of people who don’t live in densely populated urban centers. The greenies will push too hard on this, I just hope it isn’t too late before people wake up.
I am of the opinion that the left latched on to the concerns of those of us who do live in densely populated urban centers in order to further their agenda and impose it everywhere.
Because that is how they operate.
Urbanites are smarter, more cosmopolitan, more environmentally aware, more socially conscious, and most importantly understand that humanity is one big community. It’s only reasonable that they should determine how the Human Family should live.
Cities are storehouses for the excess population beyond that necessary for the survival of the species. They aggrandize themselves to justify their existance.
My grandparents gave me my first car at 16, sort of, as it wasn’t in my name. But I didn’t care about that, I just wanted to drive because it was freedom.
Now, it depends on where you are are going to drive it. If it is in any mid-atlantic or NE states, you’re going to fucking hate it. Most other places, it’s an acceptable means of getting places you want to go.
Cars are absolutely emblematic of freedom. Even my wife knows don’t make me choose between the car and whatever else.
I will protect my Mustang with lethal force and I don’t care what kind of authority you have. That’s not even a question for me.
Gas was just over a buck in CA, and a pack of smokes was a buck and a half.
Fuck the ’80s were awesome.
I remember the gas wars when gas was 15 cents a gallon.
Great article and on point.
BTW judging by the comments from the Top Men at Ars, the Twitter purchase should provide plenty of salty tears. These are the same Top Men who can’t figure out why an EV is incredibly impractical for many of the flyover people in places where precipitation freezes.
Top comment is “Fuck.”
https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2022/04/twitter-announces-deal-to-sell-company-to-elon-musk-for-44-billion/?comments=1
Progressive policies typically boil down to:
1. Make everything more expensive for everyone.
2. ????
3. Utopia!
Usually there is a nugget of market failure which gives them an in.
At that point there is a 50 / 50 chance they fix or lessen that failure, but also a 100% chance they make at least a dozen things worse for everyone that are related to the “fix”.
1.5., steal what little wealth they haven’t already lost.
Punish the normals and subsidize bad behavior.
https://tinyurl.com/yt5u9u65
NSFW.
https://archive.ph/QM4Df/9ac6326b4eba4a591ec6852b15783dd5a55494fe.jpg
NSFW.
https://thumbs2.redgifs.com/ZestyDifficultCranefly-mobile.mp4#t=0
NSFW.
https://archive.ph/9RHT5/6f9d7029852e55414152c492c3b7bf326cef75cf.png
NSFW.
Anyone tried rain water collection without gutters? I want to put a rain barrel on my deck, but I can’t tap a gutter for it, they’re not even near me and go to ground level. It rains monsoons here so maybe still worth it, don’t know.
I have heard that you can use a florescent rain light to make it work.
?
I’d recommend LED.
Chocolate Rain
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EwTZ2xpQwpA
Dude,
Chubby Rain
Love.
38 fucking years ago.
where does the time go?
Live
Lovely.
He really was a great guitarist.
Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4IED3Q5VLeg&list=PLy4u88AKUauJwcYojhO8Qbs0OLhvwoxvE
Great record.
Yeah, that and Slanted and Enchanted defined the 90s low-fi CA sound.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QLGA_bvfqh4
Purple rain of course.
Chris S. let me put my hand in her back pocket while I slow danced with her to “Purple Rain”.
*vivid memories
/the chaperons never knew
I’m so wet from love raining down on me.
Are you collecting the water to use it or to keep it away from part of the house?
I built a rain garden/rain diversion trap in my yard to prevent water in my basement. I dug a 12’ deep hole and ran a PVC pipe from my gutters at about 4’ below grade. The hole was about 4×4’X 12 deep. The pipe emptied into the bottom of the hole. I filled the hole with progressively larger rocks covered the hole with a impermeable barrier the covered it with a sidewalk.
No water issues anymore on that side of the house.
All of the water goes to 12’ down and 6’ away from the foundation.
Use it in my hydroponics setups.
Outstanding rant.
Consider also that the Chinese currently control something like 90% of the Earth’s rare earth minerals, either directly in China or through their connections with Africa and now Afghanistan. The quiet wars we’ve been waging in Africa aren’t coming out of nowhere. It’s always about resources.
My current theory is that the Chinese are pushing the green energy thing as a means of replacing the petrodollar with a rare earth yuan (doesn’t quite roll of the tongue as well, maybe it sounds better in Chinese). If they control the minerals necessary to create all those batteries and solar panels, and Western governments will stop at nothing to buy as many EVs and solar panels as possible to “go green,” it stands to reason the Chinese effectively control the governments pushing these “reforms” as an energy lobby akin to the oil industry.
Couple that with the culture war they are waging, and you’ve created the perfect environment to tear apart the current unipolar world without ever firing a shot.
I wonder how attractive mining asteroids is looking for SpaceX about now? I can’t stop thinking about that for some reason. Pooh Bear needs to go down harder than the Twatter board.
If the choice is mining asteroids or be beholden to the Chinese government…well…most people seem to be choosing the Chinese government.
Most people cannot mine an asteroid.
Okay…the people making the decisions that have the potential to mine asteroids or pick the Chinese government.
So basically Elon Musk or the US government.
The US goerment will be talking about planning to mine an asteroid in 2030 and will never get to actually doing it.
That leaves one entity to get the job done, like ever…
Restriction on freedoms of movement has been on the table for global elitists for a long time. It’s key to their great reset. If the pesasnts can just move about freely, they could be using up some of the space reserved for elite, which is pretty much all of it. And of course, the unwashed will damage mother gaia with their unwashedness. Also, if we can keep them in certain high density locations, makes them easier to track and control.
They can vote with their feet, too. It’s hard to abuse your tax slaves when they can drive to a less abusive master.
yep
Like Mo said – too scary
Eric Peters has a great blog ( https://www.ericpetersautos.com/ ) combining too of my favorite things -libertarianism and cars. I don’t go there any more – too depressing – leave my cars out of this madness.
Car-centric design of everything sucks. It’s wasteful of time, space and resources, not to mention ugly, dangerous and anti-social. Forcing everyone to have a car to hold down even a minimum wage job is ridiculous. There is a lot that could be done to make communities better by reducing car requirements and making other transit options available, reliable and safe. But they are never going to do that, since their goals are to make things worse and less free and convenient, always fewer and more costly options, because deep down they hate people doing free things outside their control.
Such as?
Monorail.
Powered by fluorescent lights or unicorn farts?
LEDs baby!
That sounds like more of a Shelbyville idea.
Lulz
How do you propose to do that? The standard progtard model involves shoving everyone into a super dense urban area. Outside of that, where you getting all that magical infrastructure?
There’s nothing too magical about mixed-use zoning, putting buildings on the main road instead of parking lots, reducing or eliminating minimum parking requirements, etc. good traffic design to keep high speed roads high speed with adaptive traffic controls and few entry points. Provide sidewalk and bike lane access to places people want to go, don’t force people to walk across 6 traffic lanes, provide mass transit to the airport. Keep the criminals out of the transit. Current sprawl is basically required by code, it’s difficult and expensive do do anything different.
There is not even one sentence in that which convinces me about anything. Sounds like meaingless word salad to me.
So what if I live 40 miles from work on a rural backroad, how do I get there without a car?
You need a car for that, period, and there’s no substitute, nor should there be.
OK. Thanks for being honest. So back to how are we getting rid of most cars?
OK. You’ve fixed things in the 1% of the US that lies in an urban center. Now explain to me how people that live in the other 99% of the country get to work without a car.
Going back to my first post, the progtrad solution requires packing everyone into a very dense urban area. So he’s not telling us anything new. I don’t accept that solution.
Yeah, I know. I’m just trying to figure out if he’s trying to be funny or is just a troll.
I’m going with troll at this point.
Definitely not trolling. Suburban design is hard. Roads are expensive, infrastructure is expensive, cars are expensive and the suburbs are full of them. Balancing them to increase density where it makes sense and providing multiple ways of living and getting around is good, and dare I say liberty-enhancing policy.
I have no problem with providing options, mandates on what I am allowed to do, I have a HUGE problem with.
By forcing suburbs to look like inner cities? It seems like your plan is to have tighter building regulations and more heavy-handed city planning. Sounds like the opposite of liberty.
People live in suburbs because that’s where most people want to live.
Zoning and regulations that require suburbs are bad.
Zoning and regulations that prohibit suburbs are worse.
I curse the new stoplight that the new Costco store put in on my commute to work. I seem to always get a red light in the morning (Costco isn’t even open yet, I mean, I guess the gas station is 24 hour, but…) and there are no cars in the perpendicular lanes.
Why can’t that light be smarter?
Sacramento did all of that on K street, downtown.
It completely killed a nice commercial area.
So only partial despotism? Works!!!!!
Original sprawl was built on the back of public transportation (streetcars, interurbans, commuter rail) that allows people to move out to new suburban developments and still be able to reach their workplace.
Mixed used development and living near where you work is great until you lose your job and have to take one on the other side of the city or your condo is right above a restaurant or some other obnoxious business.
The Suburbanite (1904)
All of these things are theoretically possible, but it runs smack into the knowledge problem, and also the practicality that the design, once made will lock down an are making it difficult/impossible to grow. But not difficult to die.
Having been exposed to the magic that is the Japan public transportation system I am sympathetic to what you’re saying, but those are very different circumstances (that involved leveling the entire country to the bare minimum in a world war, allowing them to rebuild with modern infrastructure from a clean slate in a very small, densely populated environment with possibly the most obedient population on the planet).
So, what do you techie nerds think about this: EVGA GeForce RTX 3090 FTW3 ULTRA GAMING Video Card, 24G-P5-3987-KR, 24GB GDDR6X, iCX3 Technology, ARGB LED, Metal Backplate – $1699?
I am getting too tempted. There was a founder series this morning on another site for 15 and it was gone in about 5 minutes.
What are you running now? And what resolution?
1080ti 3440×1440.
I run the same resolution with a plain 3080 with no issues. I came from a 1080.
The 3090 is overkill, but I get availability is worse on lower spec cards.
I mined with it for a week, but beats the crap out of the card. Gpu temps were fine, but memory runs at close to 100C 24/7 which is top of its rated range.
It’s not taxing my 1080ti at all. Sure, I can’t game with it at the same time. But during the day, I run my miner on low priority and before going to bed, I turn it on high.
The reason for the 3090 is the 24G vRam, future proofing my rig. And if I do game, the exture loading with be awesome. Also pretty sure my hash rate is going to go way up.
I’m thinking there isn’t a game on the planet I’m going to spend seventeen hundred bucks on to be able to play.
I’m going to use it to mine crypto as well.
Damnit, someone talk me out of this…
Do. It.
I’m not sure you are looking out for my best interest here. Why do it?
Because you want it.
Sigh…, I can’t buy everything I want, that’s my wife’s role.
But you’re gonna make money with it! Doge is going to the moon, baby!
15 cents is a long ways to get to the moon, but I’m in.
I mean the reality is that I’m not going to mine a lot of blockchain with a GPU, I would need dedicated ASIC miners to do that. But it’s a start.
“But the reality is that suburban families want their own vehicles, and want them there in their driveways and garages at the appointed hour”
Also emergencies. When my wife – who hates hospitals – decided she needed to be at the emergency room at about 9pm on the Wednesday between Christmas and New Year with covid restrictions still in place, I was sure glad I could pull my car out out of our garage and get her there in less than 15 minutes.
Further thought – I guess it’s a little like being prepared vs. thinking everything you need will always be there and everything will be fine. I very much hope that I will never, ever have to fire a shotgun (if I hadn’t lost it at the lake last fall) in anger. But, if such a situation arises, I don’t want to be sitting on my hands wondering if the meat tenderizer is going to work as a self-defense weapon.
Even the small emergencies. “Oh, we’re out of hot dog buns. Where’s the bus schedule?” Fuck that noise.
You nailed it all, Tonio.
I know that my unabashed love for vehicles makes me something of a freak in this discussion, but I really don’t understand how people don’t see restricting freedom of movement is as commie as commie gets.
Cars are freedom.
Libertarians associate cars with freedom, and I get the point of view. But how often do people consider that the invention of cars drastically increased the number of interactions and punishments the government could and does levy out to the general public? That isn’t an issue with the cars themselves, but just a point about government, I suppoise. Think about most of the interactions you’ve had with cops in your lifetime. The majority were undoubtedly because of cops, and many were just because the government sees it as a nice revenue stream.
But it isn’t just the minor traffic offenses they nickel and dime you with, either. It’s the excuse to search you and your vehicle if they see fit to find drugs, weapons or even just large amounts of cash that they can steal.
The problem isn’t cars. It’s the roads we drive them on.
The problem isn’t cars OR roads. The problem is that we’ve allowed these fuckwits almost unlimited access to our assholes.
Would the government ever hand over control over the roads? I don’t think they would.
I’m not saying they would. But they built them, so they make the rules. We wanted -demanded- they build them.
We got what we wanted, good and hard.
YEP! And the desire for uniform, paved roads in the US was started and pushed along by the (then) powerful bicyclist’s lobby. They convinced NJ to start the very first DOT in the US (1905) and it has been a a downhill slide to perdition ever since.
It’s the homicidal maniacs that drive with us on the same roads. MD is horrible, I HATE driving there. WV is fine, almost everyone drives the speed limit, obeys traffic laws and are polite and will let you merge.
So you are saying the heavy police presence on roads is justified because people suck at driving?
Are flayings in the median and roadside executions for minor traffic infractions on the menu? Asking for a friend.
The heavy police prescence on roads, as far as I can tell, makes no difference, since they are everywhere.
I don’t think you understand the point being made here.
Explain.
You can make that argument for pretty much anything that involves paying taxes since the dawn of human history.
There is no technology in human history that has led to more direct control and surveillance of the population than motor vehicles. No piece of technology has resulted in creating the sheer number of interactions between subject and government. This isn’t about taxation at all.
The same thing with the internet. Something that has sped up the ease of communication and the access to knowledge, but which has allowed governments to surveil their populations in a way that every dictator in history could have dreamed of. It still does not compare to the impact of cars, though, on the ability of government to control and abuse its populace.
Well, the expansion of the FBI and federal law enforcement was originally in part due to the mobility of criminals in the 20’s and 30’s.
I think an argument could be made that cell phones are at least as useful for surveillance and control. If you’re suggesting we go back to the horse and buggy just because the government can use something for population control, you go right ahead. Your argument can be used for just about anything that the government gets involved in. Every law ever created increases the likelihood of crossing government thugs. This argument just seems silly. X sucks because the government can use it to surveil the population describes a lot of modern conveniences.
Bro is about as subtle as a rhinoceros horn up the backside. NO advancement allowed, since gubbermint can snoop. It’s the Dumb John argument against body armor…
I keep waiting for a First reference. No one needs cars when we’ll be riding thoroughbred Firsts into the sunset.
*ducks beer stein*
Yet here I am using the internet. I own a cellphone and drive. Yes, Swiss. I can only wish to be as intellectually curious, honest, and as astute as you one day.
Do you even have the ability to argue in good faith?
The Swiss method of argumentation (I’m sure it goes over swell in court) – disregard all nuance. Latch onto a single part of the argument, and then completely mischaracterize in the most dishonest and disingenuous way possible all while proclaiming his own moral superiority for holding whatever simplistic opinion he’s holding at the time.
No, I’m suggesting that people consider the manner in which cars have increased government control, while often being glorified as tools of freedom. The technology obviously increases the freedom to travel, but maybe more emphasis should be placed on the ability to travel unimpeded.
Cars led to the creation of a shit ton of laws governing them. Maybe more people should question just how essential those laws are. Cars gave the government a pretty handy tool to increase the interaction with the populace. To generate revenue. To increase searches and seizures. To increase arrests.
I was joked on here public roads have also been pretty handy in teaching the population to comply without thinking. The signs, traffic lights, and lines on the road don’t get thought about much. But there you are, every day, following arbitrary and sometimes even nonsensical rules created by government bureaucrats. Have you ever driven in a third world country? Was it really anymore dangerous? Do more people die on the roads in a country like Iraq where those rules don’t exist?
Have you ever driven in a third world country?
I didn’t drive, but I spent a lot time in taxis praying for my life in Moscow in the 94 to 97 time frame. The population went from having no private cars (and no parking lots) to everyone trying to get their hands on their own cars.
I have vivid memories of two six-lane streets (three lanes each direction) crossing without any traffic controls. Took about 15 minutes of inching forward and honking horns to cross the intersection.
Similar in Kuwait. The two lane highway with 4+ lanes of traffic. I was sure I was going to be buried as the hood ornament of a MB Kurzhauber.
I spent a lot of time looking at the floorboards (or the street through the holes in the floorboard on one ride from the airport to the hotel).
Was it because it was actually less safe, or because you are simply more accustomed to the regulated roads of America? I don’t have an answer to that. I’m just genuinely curious.
I know that when I was in Iraq, the only accident I ever saw was when we set up a roadblock and some young kid tried speeding through it and hit one of our vehicles. I can barely go a day or two without seeing an accident while driving. Yea, more people on the road, but I’d love to see an actual study on the subject.
No idea either.
Found a video of what the roundabouts sort of feel like. Video doesn’t capture the 3D feel of crossing in front of the cars to exit.
https://youtu.be/K1Nf0NAWsn4
Was looking up videos of driving outside of the cities, and was surprised (although it shouldn’t be) that the highway north is apparently now 6 lanes with a brand new city just south of the border. There was nothing out there when I was there. Traffic mostly petered out just beyond Mutla Ridge.
dude. Dude! DUDE!
You post a lot of rubbish.
But, this post is why I don’t shit on you any more.
Nuggets like this are why I like you.
I don’t normally like anyone.
But you, you,
Keep on rockin’ in a (somewhat) free world.
I would use stop and frisk as a comparison here for a moment. It was blatantly unconstitutional for obvious reasons, but really, it was just cops attempting to use the same sort of tactics they employ across the country in poorer urban areas where a lot of their targets don’t drive. Only thing is, with cars, there are so many rules and laws governing things that they can always find some bullshit reason to pull someone over so it has the thinnest veneer of the rule of law.
Libertarians extoll the virtues of the common man being able to travel freely, and they aren’t wrong. But you sure as hell aren’t free to travel and be left alone. Who hasn’t been just passing through some shitty podunk town only to run into a speed trap that the cops sit at and watch all day to generate revenue and/or arrests?
I don’t think it is cars, per se. It is simply that gov’t will grow to fill any void, unless expressly forbidden, and even then it will create a motte around what they are forbidden. It isn’t like houses created gov’t, but look how many laws we have about that. Guns? Which are expressly supposed to have no laws around? Laws and gov’t. Pick a topic, and there are gov’t regs: sports, parks, rivers (!), etc. That is what gov’t does, grows ever larger, with no recourse to it’s original purpose.
Traditional: look both ways, wait until it’s clear to cross the street, the car is bigger than you
Zero vision: pedestrians have the right of way uber alles, put several different variants of pedestrian only crossings making driving less predictable and more dangerous, no integration to existing intersection lights causing backups, and pedestrians still jaywalk
Oh yes, the crosswalk markings. WHAT THE HECK IS UP WITH THOSE? repaint them yellow so I swear they’re less visible – make them humongously wide because apparently pedestrians also drive teams of six with a covered wagon. Plus that new sidewalk/curb combo that I guess is supposed to keep cars off of pedestrians, which fine, but I trip on them constantly because they have weird shapes and heights.
But hilariously, in my old stomping grounds, they tried one of those ‘road diets”. Spent thousands of dollars putting in a bike lane and trimming two lanes for cars to one, in each directions. Well, this road was the main artery from the freeway to a beach community. Once the road diet was instituted, travel times in traffic went from like ten minutes to forty. (this is the road heading out to Playa Del Rey for anyone familiar with the area in LA near LAX). the residents were furious – they almost single-handedly recalled Mike Bonin the county supervisor who had put his name on this “achievement” and the road diet was completely removed and put back as it had been.
But the incident really shows the insanity of some of these plans. NOt a single thought of “people live here and work somewhere else. They need those lanes because the road is actually pretty busy for cars, and not at all busy for bikes. It’s as if they lived in some fantasy world where the tourists could ride their biked up from the beach, and if anyone commuted, well, “we’ll encourage them to carpool with this road diet!”
Road diets around here
[bike lane|bus|parking spaces][traffic lane][other side mirror image unless bike lanes are doubled together]
No suicide lanes for cars..
And parking spaces, if any, must be away from the curb so visitors can mistake those for travel lanes and occupants can get hit while crossing to the curb by bicyclists paying no mind to anything.
Then there’s the fucking idiots and their now legalized Idaho stops which has, predictably, also made things less predictable and more dangerous.
OK, you guys know that when Trump got elected I said it was proof that this is either a simulation or a dream sequence. Reality is not this weird.
Well…. it just got weirder. 1984 and Big Brother are nothing compared to our reality now.
Witness: MSNBC lamenting that Musk might manipulate content to block speech from one party, or institute shadow bans….
https://twitter.com/greg_price11/status/1518782147405963265?s=10
Unreal
Not to be outdone….. Robert Reich has decided that you cannot say “go build your own platform”.
https://mobile.twitter.com/RBReich/status/1518655243541618689
The replies are amazing. One is calling for the DOJ to step in.
I want to see Musk take away @jack or ban him outright.
Jack seems to support Musk’s takeover.
Interesting. Did he lose control of Twitter behind the scenes?
Quite a while back. He only had like 2 and a half percent of the stock.
D
Damnit. Do they change their name to the Ministry of Truth first?
Just out of curiosity.. what’s the market cap and ownership structure of Meta?
Who is Musk saying he will stop from posting? Clue: A hell of a lot ltess than Twitter were already doing.
Why do all these little totalitarian wannabes have such authoritarian sounding names?
Robert ‘Reich’, ‘Max Boot’.
Is that a coincidence?
I’ve had many, many opportunities to work in Europe with other engineers. In big cities — London, Paris, Toulouse, Hamburg, Berlin, and Frankfurt. These are places with well established system of public transportation. The engineers all have cars and drive to work. Because NO ONE FUCKING USES PUBLIC TRANSPORATION IF THE DON’T HAVE TO.
People with money buy cars and use them even in crowded areas like downtown London and Paris.
Got a two week business trip to Germany. Took the wife and kid and went all over the country on a Eurail pass. Loved it so much that I took a six year assignment to Germany. Rode the train once the whole time.
When I was in high school, a bunch of my fellow classmates all moved to San Francisco right after graduation. All of them talked about not need a car, they could take muni, BART, etc.
All of them got cars again as soon as they could, all of them hated relying on public transit.
The geographic differences between the US and those places is much more conducive to public transportation. Lot of those people don’t have any clue how huge the US is (same can pretty much be said for Russia). That and they got leveled during two world wars, providing a clean slate to actually build a semi-useful transit system during the rebuilds. You’d have to effectively level a lot of American cities to be able to start over like they did and have a well-planned system.
Population Density. Public transportation only works when there are lots of people in a small area.
And even where it does work, lots of people prefer cars. Places like London actually have to prohibit people from bringing their cars into downtown.
Those places would probably be effectively gridlocked because of the population density. I can’t imagine what Tokyo might look like if everyone there had a car instead of using the trains. Not meant to be in support of government control over those things, but I can definitely understand the argument in favor of those particular regulations.
We will tell you who may…
https://youtu.be/-Qzg5UMUV4k
https://youtu.be/BLl9TXh_Z4Q
left hand drive in a right hand drive city
You ever drive in Portlandia, because that has real meaning there.
Was there this afternoon. Not as much fun as when the show was merely an exaggeration.
Could work, depending on who’s doing it. I think the DC Metro works pretty well if it works at all, if you don’t get murdered on your commute.
But Baltimore? I don’t even know what sort of idiots built that. The metro system goes in a straight line, from Owings Mills to the Inner Harbor. IOW, it is completely useless for about 99% of the people who live in the city. The buses are beyond dangerous and so you effectively cannot live and work in that city unless you own a car, period.
Most of Los Angeles newer stuff is also pretty useless. Though I will say, having gone through LAX recently that elevated thing they’re building for the airport looks pretty sweet for something they stole from Disneyland ca 1980.
Yes, Europe, were 100 miles is a long distance, and America, where 100 years is a long time.
What?I could be in at least 5 different countries in Europe by driving 100 miles.
Tomorrow starts 4 weeks of night shift testing. I will be scarce around here except on weekends.
/look at watch
WE OUT HERE !
Ok, Russia cheer squad…applaud!
https://nypost.com/2022/04/25/russia-appears-to-confuse-the-sims-for-sim-cards-in-possible-staged-assassination-attempt/
“Oh, the Sims are IN the computer?!”
– Officer Zoolanderski
None of it matters, Hunter is a starving artist so we must support Ukraine at all cost.
Related
https://youtu.be/1Y5a_Pr39Xo
That’s only a start of it. Not only does Satan himelf own an electic car, but he lives in 400 sq ft prefab house that costs less than 50K. Why aren’t all of these democrats doing any of that? The meaning of the term hypocrite has reached never before seen heights.
Am I the only one noticing this? For about the past week I have heard a sound that I have rarely heard in the past 2+ years very often. And that is the sound of commercial jets flying overhead. People start flying gain because no face diapers or $250 to get a qtip shoved up your nose going both ways? I mean that cannot be th reason, right?
Traffic picked up crazy prior to the masks being lifted but it helps that they have been.
Have the airlines also ended their own testing regimes? I know they were saying when we were flying that it was mostly a staffing issue that kept canceling flights, not a lack of passengers. On my flight from Seattle to LA earlier this month, we had to stay at the gate an extra half an hour so one of their other captains could arrive at SEA-TAC and then catch ours as a passenger to LAX, presumably to turn right around and fly out.
Its similar to the supply chain issues. Pilot shortage (probably their testing/covid policy) and people are wanting to travel in an increased amount that is near or above 2019 levels.
Pilot replaced their decent brewed coffee with brew on demand. I’m sure it takes less labor to maintain but the outcome is crap.
Im shocked nobody posted this 80s gem for an OT music link.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=A2W6QOBVpjU
Gonna be that kind of day.
??
https://ktla.com/news/local-news/corona-family-owned-restaurant-reeling-from-string-of-break-ins/
Yeah, that just sucks.
For sure. The proper solution is to serve up some #00 to the face, but I guess that’s illegal there.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Y-pvIKbekLc
Yeah, it’s ten minutes long. Still a decent watch.
Yeah that was good. The law should maybe be K-4 though. Not sure. I think we got the book How Babies are Made when I was in fourth grade.
https://www.nj.com/entertainment/2022/04/actor-misha-collins-apologizes-after-nj-fan-convention-i-need-to-correct-the-record-i-am-not-bisexual.html
…
…
Um, ok.
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/washington-legislature-strikes-word-marijuana-from-state-laws-alleging-racism
Wut?
https://mainlinetoday.com/life-style/backyard-chickens-kennett-square-family/
“Backyard chickens” sure sounds like an euphemism.
Lamest show I ever saw at CBGB.
Its a lie. Chickens are gateway animals.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ll187f27Pxg
Its a lie. Chickens are gateway animals.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ll187f27Pxg
And the squirrels agree.
Depressing article. Well done.
*Repeatedly chants, “I will own nothing and like it.”
Found this bit amusing though:
Hey, I’m not using my bed from 3:30AM to 8:30PM most days. I must share! Who wants to sleep with my wife until 6:30AM?
I’ll have my people contact your people.
Good morning, Stinky, TARDy, Sean, and homey!
ANOTHER FREAKIN’ FROST ADVISORY??? WTH??? I guess it’s just as well I didn’t get around to buying a pot of flowers to stick down in the hollow stump of my dearly departed tulip tree. Maybe by THIS weekend it’ll be safe to do so. ::glowers at the local weather app::
As I’ve said many times, I wubs my widdle Subadu, and it’s not my fault my untelecommutable job moved from a 15-minute surface street commute (which would have been easily doable by bus, but Hell no) to a 30-minute highway commute. Nobody better try to take my car away.
Good Morning, GT.
Good morning, U. How are you today?
I just wanted to keep sleeping this morning.
I don’t want to go to work.
Luckily today is a remote day.
Huh, people are cancelling meetings left and right today.
I don’t mind.
Cancel Culture isn’t all bad.
???? Actual work may be accomplished today!
I don’t know if it’s actual work – I’m reviewing applications for the open consultant position and scoring the candidates prior to selecting those to interview.
I’m not supposed to get annoyed that I can’t pronounce half the names of the applicants. Having a name this monoglot can pronounce isn’t a qualification for the position.
Mornin’, GT. Weird spring indeed, something must be up with the climate. WRT commuting, if $employer mandates RTO I will be retiring. A 90 minute commute which includes NYC subways is a hard pass
Good morning, ‘patzie!
My (3 or 4 years younger than me) boss insists I’m not allowed to retire until he does.
::ponders momentarily::
Can he do that…?
I think I know someone who can “convince” him to retire. Name of SMITH, if memory serves.
No, he can’t stop you from leaving.
Whew! I THOUGHT there was some reason he couldn’t. In the Constitution maybe? (As if anyone pays attention to that old thing anymore!)
Mostly, it’s employment laws.
*waves*
“I wubs my widdle Subadu”
Paging SugarFree. SugarFree to the courtesy desk, please.
Mornin’, reprobates. That was a great rant, hats off to Tonio.
Public transportation for all? No thanks, unless you live in or around a major metro it doesn’t exist. We are a four Hyundai (ICE, thank you very much) family and will keep it that way.
Very much so! Especially for those of us where land is plentiful and relatively cheap for the developers. My small city is unbelievably scattered about plus we have a down-town core that is downhill from most of the higher density living spaces. It didn’t help that when the chain stores arrived, they moved where land and access were cheap. Gotta have a car if you want to live a normal life. Fuck those greenie asshoe! Costco and Wal-Mart are fifteen miles away. Think I’ll be riding my bike five miles down, five miles across and five miles up just to grocery shop? After that I’d have to lug everything back on the same route. Bad planning is bad. Elevation from my house to downtown is about 500 feet. The shopping area is about 600 feet from the bottom.
Even people on welfare don’t use transit up here. Empty busses, going in circles.
We have a commuter rail line up here. When we moved here 20 years ago there were 4 trains in each direction, Monday – Friday. The local grifters decided we were underserved and instituted weekend service, so now we get to sit at a grade crossing for five minutes on Saturdays and Sundays while a four car train with maybe ten passengers on board sits in a station. Progress!
Good Morning everyone.
Yesterday all of my sheep and pregnant mini cow made a dashing escape from my failed fencing yesterday.
Running around after a cow was my Glibfit for the week.
(all ok)
Good Morning everyone.
Yesterday all of my sheep and pregnant mini cow made a dashing escape from my failed fencing yesterday.
Running around after a cow was my Glibfit for the week.
(all ok)
I’ll take that “(all ok)” to mean you retrieved the cow and sheepies and they’re safe in their proper places again.
Yep, although wife was slightly upset.
We have one baby sheep easting like a champ in my home office. Very cute thing.
Still hoping for pics! Just sayin’…
That’s the heifer that doesn’t like you, right? I’m betting that she was the one that hatched the caper.
She mooooved the fence.
Glad everything is OK.
“Running around after a cow”
Where’s Tres?
Frantically doxxing Robo.
Walls don’t work, or something.
You need a Border Collie.
?
Test
??
? Test 2
? Test 2
Testicles!
Daily Quordle 92
8️⃣3️⃣
5️⃣4️⃣
quordle.com
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I’m pretty sure that the top left a) isn’t actually a word or b) only a word because subliterate Americans don’t know how to spell.
Well, what’s the string you’re contesting?
Morning, all.
Up for two hours already – the dog does not care that my wife is travelling for work; apparently, I have to adjust to the dog’s schedule and not the other way around.
On the plus side, I’ll be punching out of work early now.
That’s why I have no pets. They own you.